Taking antipsychotic medications without prior prescription from a specialist in the area can trigger a series of complications that affect both physical and mental health that could be serious. Antipsychotics are medications prescribed for the treatment of clinical conditions such as schizophrenia, paranoia, manic-depressive psychosis, among others. However, sometimes people confuse the symptoms of these diagnoses with some manifestation that they are experiencing at a certain time in their lives. Consequently, they are guided by the comments provided by society about the possible scope of medication.
In this Psychology-Online article we will provide you with information about the risks of taking antipsychotics without needing them.
When are antipsychotics prescribed?
Antipsychotics are prescribed when a person presents compatible symptoms that could be placed within the psychotic disorders proposed by the DSM-V. In more specific terms, the most common clinical conditions are schizophrenia, paranoid personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder, among others.
All these diagnoses have in common the persistence of visual and auditory delusions and hallucinations, sensitive and/or gustatory. Although it is true that each clinical picture can vary and have differences in the people who have these manifestations, the intensity of each symptom allows a mental health professional to indicate the provision of antipsychotics.
What happens if a healthy person takes antipsychotics
A healthy person can have harmful effects on their behaviors, emotions, and thoughts if they take antipsychotics without needing them. Below we show you some of the main risks:
- metabolic alterations: organic changes that affect the functioning of organs, such as increased body weight and the risk of contracting diabetes. On the other hand, an altered metabolism can cause cardiovascular problems since the clinical values of each body system begin to function poorly.
- Cognitive damage: Antipsychotics interfere with the ability to pay attention, reason and memory. This is because these medications inhibit some neuronal connections that occur in the central nervous system. In these cases, there is the possibility that the person develops problems in reasoning about concrete and abstract situations, among others.
- Involuntary patterns of body movements: In some cases, the person may develop muscle stiffness, tremors, and involuntary movements that are made without intention.
- Sleep disturbances: Due to the sedative effect of most antipsychotics, deregulation in sleep patterns is possible. Disruption of circadian cycles that are used to establish adequate rest can lead to insomnia or hypersomnia.
- Low blood pressure: Blood flow in the body may be altered and cause episodes of fainting, dizziness and nausea.
- sexual problems: the production of hormones intended for sexuality can stop. Likewise, it has been shown that it can cause erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in men or menstrual disorders and a deficit in breast milk production in women.
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What to do if someone takes antipsychotics without needing them
Given the knowledge of the risky effects that antipsychotics produce without the need to consume them, it is important to know how to proceed on a medical level. In this section, we will address this topic:
- Education: faced with the suspicion that someone is ingesting this type of psychotropic drugs, it is essential to maintain empathetic communication in the face of the problems that arise. In this way, it is possible to understand the unfavorable harmful effects on the body.
- Professional orientation: In general terms, the consumption of antipsychotics responds to specific causes that must be specified in each person. For this reason, it is important that special emphasis be placed on the need to see a health professional to treat the underlying problem.
- emotional containment: Showing support and security is a way to contain the person who is suffering. This not only involves listening to the suffering, but also offering a space of comfort and well-being for the anguish to unfold.
- Understanding: It is not about judging the person who takes antipsychotics without needing them, but rather about showing them that they are understood and that there are reasons why they have resorted to taking them. In any case, it is not advisable to reinforce these ideas because they could increase intakes and cause other types of problems.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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References
- American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders (5th edition). Arlington: Panamericana Medical Publishing.
Bibliography
- Osuna Abril, J., Arrebola Dominguez, A., Espinosa Fernández, P. (2018). Comparison between typical antipsychotics vs atypical antipsychotics. IV International Virtual Congress of Mental Health Nursing.
- Rivera Areas, JA (2015). Atypical antipsychotics: adverse effects, neuronal survival and neurogenesis. Medical Journal of Costa Rica and Central America, 72 (615), 339-342.